Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

King Lies About Greenwald

Rep. Peter King, one of the most ridiculous blowhards ever to serve in Congress, is flat out lying about Glenn Greenwald. He says Greenwald should be prosecuted for his role in the recent NSA spying revelations and he is inventing out of thin air a seriously defamatory claim:

HOST MEGYN KELLY: To take it another step and to say the journalists who published the information, the guys who published what he leaked, that they should face prosecution that is news. Do you believe that? Do you stand by that, both Greenwald and the Washington Post reporter?

KING: I’m talking about Greenwald. Greenwald, not only did he disclose this information he has said that he has the names of CIA agents and assets around the world and they’re threatening to disclose that. […]

KELLY: What is the difference between Glenn Greenwald who broke this story in the Guardian who is an American citizen but he’s living abroad and James Rosen and the Associated Press?

KING: James Rosen never said he was going to release information that was going to kill Americans. He was never going to disclose the names of CIA agents and operatives around the world the way Greenwald is saying he is threatening to do.

A blatant lie. Greenwald has never claimed that he had such information, much less that he would reveal it. In fact, he has said the exact opposite, that he would never reveal the identities of covert operatives even if he had it. King is just lying. Which is about as surprising as the sun coming up in the morning. And quite frankly, I think Greenwald should file a defamation suit over it. That is serious slander.

How does Congresscritter King propose to get Greenwald before a court in the US as he currently lives in Brazil, which, it is my information, has no extradiction treaty with the US. Does King propose that the CIA do a Vanunu on him?

1) British Labour MP David Winnick noted that Great Britain blinked when Peter King was made Chairman of the US House Homeland Security Committee — especially when King started questioning ““domestic radicalization [in the American Muslim community].

“Rep. Peter King (R-NY) stood by his past support for Irish terrorism during an appearance today before a British parliamentary inquiry into the roots of Muslim terrorism….

…It was the longtime Labour MP David Winnick, who was first elected to the House of Commons in 1966, who confronted King.

“There’s been some surprise in the United States but also in Britain that you have a job looking into and investigating into terrorism,” said Winnick. King, the MP added, “seems to be an apologist for terrorism.”

Winnick cited a King quote from 1982:

[ We must pledge ourselves to support those brave men and women who this very moment are carrying forth the struggle against British imperialism in the streets of Belfast and Derry.]

And another from 1985:

[If civilians are killed in an attack on a military installation, it is certainly regrettable, but I will not morally blame the I.R.A. for it.]

…..Winnick followed up on the exchange by asking about British use of torture against the I.R.A. being used as a recruiting tool, and whether there is a parallel to post-9/11 U.S. torture policies. King said he did not believe there was. ”

@ slc1
Greenwald travels quite a bit including to his NY residence. Extraterritoriality seems kind of meaningless these days, however. I suspect that’s why snowden went to Hong Kong (China). The Chinese have the means and interest to actually prevent a snatch and grab OP.

You know what always throws me is that the same people who, when I grew up in the Boston area, would actively aid IRA men hiding out, are some of the same folks who want to have people locked away forever for providing “material support.”

(To give you an idea, on a bridge in my home town you can still see the “Bobby Sands will never die” graffiti on one of the bridges).

Like I said before, this just shows that the greatest danger to our liberties doesn’t come from people who gather shitloads of information about us — it comes from people who MAKE SHIT UP. Seriously, is anyone saying King got any of his “dirt” on Greenwald from a wiretap or other such means?